MARLEE BURRIDGE | COLUMN

J

ust 
as 
ticket 
prices 
appear 
to 
impact 
the 
public’s 
opinion 
of 
women’s sports, so does the 
sports media. There is little 
to no coverage of women’s 
athletics and that leads to a 
lack of investment, interest 
and education on the part of the 
public. It becomes extremely 
difficult to generate support 
when the big inf luencers in 
sports media disregard any 
important events that happen 
in the female athletics world. 
In fact, the only time there 
is any significant coverage of 
women’s sporting events is 
during the Olympics and the 
World Cup.
This becomes more obvious 
during 
March 
Madness. 
The 
men’s 
and 
women’s 
tournaments run side by side, 
yet 
the 
men’s 
tournament 
receives 
all 
of 
the 
media 
attention. In fact, I cannot 
recall a single time during the 
tournaments when I turned on 
ESPN and they were talking 
about the women’s tournament. 
For example, Sister Jean and 
the Loyola men’s basketball 
team 
received 
an 
extreme 
amount of media attention 
and were constantly in the 
conversation while the Notre 
Dame 
women’s 
basketball 
team received no attention 
despite the fact that they beat 
the undefeated University of 
Connecticut team in the Final 
Four, and Arike Ogunbowale 
went on to hit a buzzer beater 
to win it all. Of course, the 
Loyola team and their chaplain 
deserved attention as they 
were a fantastic Cinderella 
story, but perhaps some of 
the time spent covering them 
could have been better spent 
on the women’s tournament.
As I am certain most of us 
remember, Jordan Poole hit a 
buzzer beater to beat Houston 
and send Michigan to the 
Sweet 16. That shot was highly 
publicized 
and 
everyone 
was talking about it. When 
Ogunbowale 
hit 
a 
buzzer 
beater to win it all, I don’t 
think I even saw a single video 
of it. This kind of media deficit 
is crippling to all women’s 
sports.
Another 
issue 
that 
accompanies the lack of media 
coverage is that it becomes 

very difficult to find articles 
and 
news 
about 
women’s 
sports. 
Even 
if 
someone 
is 
interested 
in 
reading 
articles and news on female 
athletics it takes at least five 
to 10 minutes of digging to 
find 
something 
interesting 
or 
relevant. 
For 
example, 
women’s sports receive only 
4 percent of all sports media 
coverage and big sources like 
SportsCenter only devoted 1 
percent of their on-air time to 
women’s athletics. It is very 
discouraging to many young 
athletes and sports fans when 
they have to go digging to find 
something that interests them.
There is already a deficit 
between interest in men’s and 

women’s sports and it certainly 
isn’t helping when you have to 
spend a bunch of time looking 
for 
something 
interesting 
about women’s sports. This 
lack of representation becomes 
a huge problem for young 
female athletes as well. With 
so little media coverage, young 
girls struggle to find role 
models in their various sports. 
It is important that young 
athletes have someone they 
can look up to and relate to 
who encourages them to keep 
going and proves to them they 
can accomplish big things. 
Because this is so absent for 
female athletes, it may make it 
harder for young girls to feel 
like it’s worth it to continue to 
pursue their athletic careers. 
This leads to a higher rate of 
young girls who stop playing 
sports 
and 
therefore 
lose 

the many benefits that come 
from playing a sport such as 
higher self-esteem, positive 
body image, and lower anxiety 
levels.
The argument has become 
that women’s sports don’t have 
a lot of media coverage because 
they are not mainstream and 
popular, but as Cheryl Reeve, 
head coach of a WNBA team, 
said, 
“The 
more 
women’s 
sports are covered, the more 
popular and mainstream, they 
will become.” I understand 
that most media outlets are 
in it for the money. They 
want to cover the events that 
bring them the most profit. 
However, they appear to be 
missing out on a huge market 
here. About half of all athletes 
are women which means that 
sports media is ignoring about 
half of their potential income.
If the media were to cover 
more 
female 
sports, 
they 
would make more money while 
simultaneously 
building 
up 
the public’s interest in female 
athletics, which would result 
in more money for them later 
on. So if we want to take the 
fact of unjustified inequality 
out of it and only consider the 
financial aspect, it seems as 
though it would make sense 
for media outlets to cover 
women’s sports far more often 
than they currently do.
All sports were unpopular 
at one point or another. It all 
comes down to exposure and 
marketing. 
Once 
women’s 
sports are given more coverage 
and the public becomes more 
exposed 
to 
the 
women’s 
sports world, these sports will 
become more popular. When 
women’s sports become more 
popular, people will become 
more educated on the topic. 
When people become more 
educated on the topic, the 
ability to close the pay gap and 
other inequalities is no longer 
an impossible task, but rather a 
goal that can be accomplished. 
When 
sports 
media 
starts 
to devote more of its time to 
female athletes, the fight for 
equality will become far less 
difficult and burdensome.

5
OPINION

Thursday, June 7, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

annoying 
and 
equally 
harder to deal with than if 
I had just said I was in the 
Business School. I learned 
if I asked the question first 
– bam – I could tailor my 
answer to whatever they 
said: “Oh, you’re in Ross? 
Me too!” or “Not in Ross? 
Okay then, I am in LSA and 
undecided.”
The 
whole 
“LSA 
and 
undecided” answer worked 
really well until I went to 
go fill out forms or people 
started to get more curious 
about my class schedule. 
The Business School isn’t 
part of LSA and business 
students are not undecided 
because 
they 
receive 
a 
B.B.A. Super specific, I 
know. Anyways, I would 
forget 
about 
the 
whole 
B.B.A. thing because I was so 
determined to ignore the fact 
that I was in the Business 
School. I’ll admit it, I was 
ashamed.
The first five months of 
the school year, a long time 
for a school that gets out in 
April, were awful. I treaded 
lightly when I met people, 
not knowing whether or not 
being a business student 
would 
somehow 
affect 
our 
possible 
friendship. 
Spoiler alert: it didn’t. I 
put so much emphasis on 
the negative aspect of the 
fact that I was in Ross that 
I didn’t look at the bright 
side. I’m in Ross. Some 
people would kill to be in 
my position.
I 
didn’t 
appreciate 
that until the middle of 
winter term. I think it 
had to do with the fact 
that I was in denial about 
not being a STEM major. 
The people with which I 
surround myself are all 
pre-med or some kind of 

biochemical science major 
taking organic chemistry 
their first year while I sat 
around doing ethics case 
studies. Both are super 
interesting, it’s just that, 
for a long time, I didn’t 
understand the weight of 
what I was studying, didn’t 
think it was as “academic” 
as, say, doing a chemistry 
lab.
Now, though, things are 
different. During the winter 
term, I met a lot more of my 
business peers and began 
to wonder why exactly I 
was uncomfortable telling 
people about my major. 
You don’t see biochemical 
students 
rushing 
to 
cover up their scientific 
endeavors, 
nor 
do 
you 
ever 
hear 
international 
studies students gloss over 
interests 
in 
the 
world. 
So, why should I hide my 
interest in business? The 
answer was I shouldn’t. 
The 
opportunities 
that 
a 
well-earned 
business 
degree can provide are 
infinite and the subjects 
within it are nuanced and 
applicable.
I 
think 
one 
of 
the 
biggest reasons I didn’t 
feel comfortable with my 
standing in the Business 
School was that I have no 
idea what I want to do with 
my life. Do I want to go into 
health-care? Do I want 
to manage a hedge fund? 
Do I want to somehow do 
both? 
These 
questions 
continue 
to 
plague 
me, 
but a business degree is at 
least start in some kind of 
direction. So, yeah, maybe 
I am a Rosshole after all.

Female athletics and sports media

Marlee Burridge can be reached at 

marleebu@umich.edu

Emma Chang can be reached at 

emmacha@umich.edu.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION

Readers are encouraged to submit letters 
to the editor and op-eds. Letters should 
be fewer than 300 words while op-eds 
should be 550 to 850 words. Send the 
writer’s full name and University affiliation to 
emmacha@umich.edu

Confessions of a closeted Rosshole by Emma Chang continued below:

“There is little 
to no coverage 
of women’s 
athletics and 
that leads 
to a lack of 
investment, 
interest, and 
education on 
the part of the 
public.”

